Functional characterization of skeletal F‐actin labeled on the NH2‐terminal segment of residues 1–28

Rabbit skeletal alpha-actin was covalently labeled in the filamentous state by the fluorescent nucleophile, N-(5-sulfo-1-naphthyl)ethylenediamine (EDANS) in the presence of the carboxyl group activator 1-(3-dimethyl-aminopropyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide (EDC). The coupling reaction was continued until the incorporation of nearly 1 mol EDANS/mol actin. After limited proteolytic digestion of the labeled protein and chromatographic identification of the EDANS-peptides, about 80% of the attached fluorophore was found on the actin segment of residues 1-28, most probably within the N-terminal acidic region of residues 1-7. A minor labeling site was located on the segment that consists of residues 40-113. No label was incorporated into the COOH-terminal moiety consisting of residues 113-375. The isolated EDANS-G-actin undergoes polymerization in the presence of salts but at a rate significantly greater than unlabeled actin. The EDANS-F-actin could be complexed to skeletal chymotryptic myosin subfragment 1 (S-1) and to tropomyosin. The complex formed between EDANS-F-actin and S-1 could not be further crosslinked by EDC but the two proteins were readily joined by glutaraldehyde as observed for native actin-S-1, suggesting that the EDANS-substituted carboxyl site is also involved in the EDC crosslinking of native actin to S-1. Moreover, the EDANS labeling of F-actin resulted in a 20-fold increase in the Km of the actin-activated Mg2+.ATPase of S-1. Thus, this labeling, while it did not much affect the rigor actin-S-1 interaction, changes the actin binding to the S-1-nucleotide complexes significantly. The selective introduction of a variety of spectral probes, like EDANS, or other classes of fluorophores, on the N-terminal region of actin, through the reported carbodiimide coupling reaction, would provide several different derivatives valuable for assessing the functional role of the negatively charged N-terminus of actin during its interaction with myosin and other actin-binding proteins.